What a beautiful little girl she is becoming although most of the times I still think of her as
my little baby. Not because she’s still an infant, just because she IS my
baby…my little girl. Her eye lashes are still amazingly long and dark and they
frame her beautiful blue eyes so well. Her smile has the ability to make my
heart jump….Especially when her three little teeth show through. And soon it
will be six new teeth as three more are fighting their way through.
She’s a stubborn one and she has a red headed temper! She’s not
walking yet even though she can take steps. I’ll get her to take steps and she
will and then she’ll decide she’s done. And she will REFUSE to take anymore.
What a silly girl. If she only knew how much easier it is to walk then crawl.
And talking, she can say “Ba” and “uh” like no one’s business and sometimes even
teases me with a “mamma” but that is it. I’ve been working really hard with her
trying to teach her words but when I say them she just looks at me, smiles, and
says, “ba”. Oh Hanley. The other day she did pick up the phone and start
“talking” in it. I’m sure soon enough she’ll out talk her brother. Lord help you
if you make her mad, she will let you know….and know….and know….and know.
I started to notice she likes to hoard things somewhat. She will
pick up as many of something as she can and hold on to them. She’ll also take
toys and hide them in cabinets or her play kitchen. She thinks it’s so much
fun. She can tackle the stairs up and down no problem. She also LOVES to play at the park. She will climb up to the slide, turn around, and go down on her belly feet first. She laughs the whole
time. She’ll swing all day if you let her and laughs and laughs.
What a fun little girl she has become. A few things I would like
her to work on is not crying almost all the time in the store and not not not
NOT throwing up in the car ALL THE TIME. But anyway like I said what a fun little girl she has become. I’m so thankful the Lord trusted me to be her mamma.

One year ago my beautiful baby girl came into my life. She had auburn red hair and bright blue eyes. After she was born I held my breath until her first cry. Oh what a beautiful cry. Who knew something so tiny could wrap herself around my finger and snuggle right up in my heart. Throughout her first year I’ve watched her grow, smile, laugh, crawl, stand up, and turn into this bright and fun one year old. We’ve fought eating and sleeping battles and some days I thought I was going to go crazy.I couldn’t imagine her not being in my life. She brings me so much happiness and I am completely in love. I thank God often for her.Happy first birthday my amazing little girl!

Christmas was close to perfect for me this year. I got a last minute surprise of my Aunt and Uncle, as well as my cousin and her babies coming to my house. My mom and dad were there and my brother and his girlfriend came for Christmas dinner as well as Makayla. Christmas Eve Caleb and the babies hung out waiting impatiently for everyone to get there. I premade lots of food and finished wrapping the last of the presents. Once everyone got there, Huddie and Han played with my cousins babies. They played and played and equally tried to open the presents.

We put on a movie at the end of the night to calm everyone down but then Caleband Makayla spotted Santa’s sleigh outside and everyone got wound up. AND THEN Santa himself was lost on our street trying to find his way back to the sleigh. Caleb came running in the house when he spotted him so we took the little ones out. Emma went straight to him as if Santa was her favorite person. Hudson, not so much. He had to warm up to Santa. We invited him in for cookies and milk and he let us take a few pictures.

We put the movie back on and checked the Santa tracker. We

told the kids he was closer and he had already bi-passed 1,000 houses becausethose children were not in bed. Caleb heard that and went straight to his bed.I went in there and told him there was a little time and he was sleeping ourroom so he could get back up but we really needed to work on getting all thebabies asleep. So we all went on doing our thing and I noticed Caleb and Hanleywere missing. Bless his little heart, he was up in her room with her, rockingher in his arms saying, “Go to sleep Hanley, please go to sleep.” I think Ifeel in love with him 100 times over at that moment. I took over to get her tosleep so he could go get ready for bed.

And Santa did indeed come.

The next morning Hanley must have heard all the commotion and started the processof waking up the entire house. We woke up, let the kids come down the stairs,and they were the happiest children ever. Emma was a great helper helpingeveryone open their presents. We all made out pretty good. I love watching thekids open presents and see the excitement! After playing with all the presents it was dinner time.There was so much delicious food!About this time everyone had to leave so Dad,Makayla, Caleb & I went to shoot his new gun. What fun!We finished that evening out playing with all the toys andenjoying each other’s company.Like I said, close to perfect. I guess the only thing that could have madeit more perfect is if Hanley walked on Christmas…but I’ll take what I can get.